How to Play:

If you want to progress from a basic game to the full game, you just need to add The Logistic Phase

And if you want to know how to choose your forces, here's how it works:

in Armoured Digital each player starts the turn by choosing a set of 'Order Programs' (represented by cards). Players alternate selecting an order, choosing which of their drone tanks to send it to, and then carrying out the actions.
Each orders card is made to the same equivalent ‘power level’. Some cards allow you to take on some risk for more reward, like with the Redline order (where you gain extra movement but risk overheating your engines).

At other times, you might trade off one bonus for a penalty elsewhere, like with the rapid fire and precision fire orders.

Having all the details of each order on the cards makes the game easy to learn, but deciding which orders to use, in which order, on which drone, and with which target, is a skill that takes time to master. This gives players endless different strategies to work with, each equally valid.

The Tanks

Each unit within Armoured Digital has its own unique role on the battlefield, with strengths and weaknesses to match.

Command units like the Centaur, are the nerve centre for your force. The main game box includes the Centaur forward command and reconnaissance vehicle, a fast and flexible unit.

Combat units are your main tools to defeat the enemy. They are powerful and dangerous, but they are also disposable. The main game box includes three different combat tanks: the well-armoured and long-ranged Rhino, the fast and deadly Wolf and the hard-hitting Elephant.

There is a scissors-paper-rock relationship between combat units. Some weapon types will penetrate some defence types very easily, while they have a hard time damaging others. Most units have defensive systems that can protect them from enemy vehicles of their type, so players are encouraged to have diverse lists.

Armoured Digital uses 1/100 (15mm) scale miniatures, cast in resin. Each miniature is cast in as few pieces as possible, meaning that you can just place the turrets into the hulls and start playing. There are also recesses for adding magnets if you would like to. Each miniature is designed to visibly show the stats of the unit, with common sensor, communications, weapons and drive systems that players can recognise.

Here are the production quality miniatures.

Building new units

Unique to Armoured Digital is the ability to replace your losses during the game. Your mobile factory can spit out any unit, as long as you have a production blueprint for them.

Building new units also gives you a range of new strategic options:

Change your toolset. If the enemy is beating you, produce the right tank to hard counter their attackers.

Change your tactics. Start with one unit type and then switch to another mid-game.

Don't leave your collection on the shelf. Bring all your minis to the game, and rotate them onto the battlefield as you need them.

Bad matchups don't last. If you've arrived at a tourney and have all the wrong units, just select the best production specs from your collection and start fixing the situation.

Control the resources. If your enemy is building too many, you can take control of the mine, destroy their transports or even their factory!

The Setting

The future of war... doesn’t include us.

Armoured Digital is set in a high-tech post-apocalyptic future, where the AI that we relied upon to perform all our labour became our deadly enemies. Over time, the war ground down to a stalemate, both sides shattered. Humanity's greatest weapons in that war, the Digipaths, found themselves without commanders. Where once they took orders, now they are giving them. And of course, like all people throughout human history, not everyone agrees on what needs to be done. More Here!

The Factions

There are six factions in Armoured Digital, most of them modelled on historic warrior societies. However, the corruption of data throughout the war has left any sense of our true history in tatters. The Digipaths are as likely to believe that comic-book versions of history are just as real as what we know today.

• The Hoplites believe that only the strong have the fortitude to rule the broken world. Digipaths are the strongest of all, and any human who is not a Digipath is useful only for slave labour and as breeding stock. They hunt down and plunder resources to allow them to finally finish the war against the AI.

• The Templars believe that the strong should protect the weak. They are ever seeking to protect humans from AI and from the depredations of other Digipaths. However, humans are wary of all Digipaths and are not particularly grateful to be saved by them.

• The Skald believe that the war was the best thing to happen to humanity, and that we improve as a species because of chaos. They seek to provoke others into fighting in order to strengthen human genetics.

• The Bastion seek knowledge above all else. They scour the globe looking for reliable, uncorrupted data on science and technology that they can bring back to their remote fortress cities. They are constantly tinkering and experimenting with their equipment.

• The Bushi believe in the power of the individual to overcome all odds. They are isolationist, where they live in barracks and train incessantly. However, when provoked they are relentless in pursuing and exterminating their enemies.

• The Nomads are the remnants of populations from devastated zones: areas where life isn’t welcome due to damage from the war or from the sudden disappearance of technology when the AI attacked. Unique amongst the factions, in Nomad tribes the Digipaths and normal humans live and work side by side.

Beta Rules & Online Demo

If you have a copy of Tabletop Simulator on Steam, you can try out a demo game with the 2-player starter set here.

Stretch Goals

We have started this KS with a low target, but now the project has met target and now it is gaining momentum you can expect a lot of freebie (as well as purchasable add-on) stretch goals.

Addons:

If you want any of the addons shown, please just add the £ amount shown to your pledge total. We will capture your specific selection when you complete the Pledge Manager once KS is complete.

Shipping information

Based on past experience (of us and others), we will be charging shipping after the Kickstarter concludes based on the actual costs incurred to ship. We will collect this via our pledge manager after the campaign ends. This is so we can be fair to all our backers (shipping is rarely one size fits all). We will ship your rewards at our cost to our international hubs. Depending on where in the world you are, we will either ship to you from our hub in the USA (NA and some ROW backers), or the UK (EU & ROW backers). As a rough estimate, the game will cost about £10-15 to ship within Europe and NA, £15 within Australia and approx £20-25 elsewhere (for a 2kg parcel), but weight may increase or decrease depending on the quantity of stretch goals we unlock and your choices. Please note that while we do our best to get you your rewards in a timely manner and at the best delivery cost we can, you may not necessarily receive your rewards before the product makes it into distribution in your own country or before it's made available in conventions and special promotion opportunities. We hope that the special price and exclusive items you will get during the Kickstarter will make up for any such possible lag. However, if this is something that is not acceptable to you, please do not back this project, and instead wait for the retail release. Thank you for your understanding.

Why Kickstarter?

A really good question! Word Forge Games is a growing company, of which more and more gamers are becoming aware, but we are still small. When we met with Chris and understood what he was doing and planning for Armoured Digital, we realised that it had so much potential, but it needed marketing. Our budgets for such things are small, we don't have the expendable cash to advertise everywhere, but Kickstarter is arguably one of the best marketing tools out there. Kickstarter also means we can gain feedback and develop this game with the players for the players, it's instant feedback and we like that.

Beyond Kickstarter

Once the Armoured Digital Kickstarter has finished, we will work our socks off to complete all the stretch goals and Advanced Level Pledge designs. When they are complete, we will open a Pledge Manager to allow you to select your add-ons and confirm your shipping address. We also promise to update you on our progress on a weekly basis.

Armoured Digital is also intended to be a game that continues to grow and develop as more players join us. There will be more units, more orders, more commanders and more ways to play. We will be developing and releasing more units for all vehicle types, including tanks, hovercraft, walkers and aircraft. We have plans to add buildings, massive heavy units and new command unit options. There will be game modes where players have to undertake secret missions and achieve their objectives before the enemy achieves theirs. There will also be a large-scale war expansion, where players command squads of tanks instead of single units.

Risks and challenges

Word Forge Games has now run 5 successful Kickstarters, ranging from very small to large sized. We have always fulfilled. The one most like Armoured Digital, the first Devil's Run Kickstarter, has involved a lot of components and dealing with a number of different suppliers, as well as designing all from scratch after the completion of the Kickstarter. We are much further down the line with Armoured Digital, many of the vehicles are already designed, in production and fully play-tested. All core game cards and card stock is designed and manufacturers specified. We manufacture the resin miniatures ourself.

We have a clear plan how to complete this project and all aspects in our control, and we are fully confident we can ensure these occur in a time-appropriate manner and we will do our utmost to drive the other parts and partners on a daily basis.

As with any Kickstarter, if lots of Stretch Goals are unlocked, work amount increases. We have accounted for this, but please be aware that a massively over target campaign may affect completion date slightly.